NATICK, Mass. — Friday night's clash between No. 10 Natick and Braintree was supposed to be a test of contrasting defenses and styles. Instead, the Bay State Conference foes treated us with offensive fireworks.
Braintree, using two critical runs in the third and fourth quarters, prevailed in a 79-76 thriller, handing Natick its first loss of the winter. It was Braintree's highest-scoring game of the season, and according to Kelley Macdonald, the most consistently great offensive game in her three years as head coach.
"It just kind of came all of a sudden, because that's not where we're doing the first few games this season," she said. "But we were hyper-focused on this game and competing for all four quarters this game. That was in the girls' heads and it definitely showed yesterday at practice."
Every time Braintree (5-2) tried to put the game out of reach, Natick (8-1) nearly clawed back. That included a 10-1 closing run from the Redhawks that came up a couple of 3-point attempts short. Typically I tally up five standouts from a game I cover — but there was so much firepower in this one that I'm giving you seven below.
